I'm at Bay 101 working the Shooting Star event right now here in San Jose and we had an action clock incident. It reminded me of a situation at the Lodge in Texas a few weeks ago, where a player, David Pelosi, had his pocket aces mucked.
This is what happened.
David was at the final table of their WPT Prime event at the Lodge and his action clock hit zero before he had made any action on his hand.
And his hand was pronounced dead.
Why action clocks?
This incident sparked a lot of controversy. And of course, his aces were mucked preflop. That's something that nobody wants to happen, especially at a final table.
It was a reminder to me here at the Bay 101 event because I heard a lot of players talking about how unfair it was and how he should have received more time.
Let me explain. The action clock exists for very specific reasons.
All of us who work these tournaments try to make it fair for everybody. We make sure players have a certain amount of extensions available.
We do that so that when you have big decisions, like what should I do with aces – which some would say shouldn't be that big of a decision at all – you can receive extra time to think about it.
Time is up, hotshot!
If you are in a spot where you have no extensions left, that means you've used them for other decisions during the tournament.
And what should you do then? You should be hyper-focused on making sure you commit to an action before the clock hits zero.
The rules in these events are made very clear to everybody from the start. If you don't have any time extensions left, you are facing an action, and your clock hits zero, you have a dead hand.
Let me say that again: Your hand is dead.
Of course, we all feel bad for the guy because he had his aces mucked preflop. But think about it for a moment. It's the same as pulling a pin on a grenade and having five seconds to throw it. If you're still holding it five seconds later, it's going to explode. That’s never good.
The same thing will happen in a tournament if you don't act on your hand. So, don’t let this happen to you
I want to be clear: saying "raise" without naming an amount or getting chips ready to put forward isn't necessarily an action that commits you to anything.
So when the clock hits zero, you might find yourself in a spot you don't want to be in.
The whole reason we have these things is to speed up action, keep the game moving, keep the game fluid, and make it fair for everybody in the tournament.
So there aren't really cases for any exceptions because you have aces. Sorry.
‘Don’t make me give you a penalty’
So what I encourage people to do in these tournaments is to say your action if it's coming close to the time running out.
Watch the clock and how many, if any, time extensions you have, because these types of tournaments are here to stay.
Why? They are better for the game.
And while I feel very bad for David in this situation, I think the tournament director made the right ruling. Except for one fact: If I tell you your hand is dead and you throw it face up to the dealer, and it’s aces, you're probably going to get a penalty from me as well.
So the only thing I think the Lodge could have done differently was penalize the player a little more than they already did.
But action clocks are here to stay.
I encourage people to use them, learn about them, and use them wisely.
Justin Hammer is the Live Events Director for PokerAtlas, an online tournament director for the Texas-based poker app Hijack, and a tournament director at Thunder Valley Casino Resort. He also works as a consultant and is a minority owner of Desert Bluffs Casino in Kennewick, Washington.
For more info visit PokerAtlas.com, HijackPoker.com, and bluffs.poker. Follow Justin on X.
